How To Lose 45 Pounds

Karen Stupples, 40Hometown: Orlando, FLHeight: 5'4"Current weight: 138Heaviest weight: 183Lightbulb moment: I reached my pregnancy weight…when I wasn't pregnant.Biggest benefit: I have more energy to play with my son and practice golf.

Karen's Story

Being thin has never come naturally to me. I remember taking ballet as a kid and thinking I could never be a ballerina because my thighs were the chunkiest in the class. Even though I was fortunate enough to start playing golf professionally at 25, being an athlete with the Ladies Professional Golf Association didn't provide enough exercise to keep the pounds at bay. In fact, all the traveling required for tournaments—I live out of my suitcase about 10 months a year—made it all too easy to grab high-calorie fast food. But when I had my son at 33, I became even busier, and the weight really started to pile on. For years, I struggled to lose a single pound. I had a gloomy feeling that this would be what I looked like for the rest of my life. And forever is a really long time to dislike yourself.

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Five years after my son was born, I reached my heaviest—183 pounds, just as much as I weighed when I was 9 months pregnant. I didn't feel like myself, and I certainly didn't look like myself. I felt trapped in my body, and I was ready to break free from the extra pounds. So I decided to kick off 2012 by making a resolution to get healthy.

Small Tweaks, Big ResultsI was already active—I was training at the gym and practicing golf 4 days a week—so I knew that to kick-start my weight loss, I needed to focus on improving my diet. I'm not an organizer or list writer, so calorie counting wasn't going to work for me. For my plan to stick, it had to be simple. I decided to eliminate carbs, such as bread and pasta, as well as sweets and artificial sugars, because they rarely satisfied my appetite and only made me want to snack more.

The first day of going cold turkey on my favorite foods was really tough—I was the moodiest person on the planet. But I pressed on, swapping my doughnuts for walnuts and nut-based protein bars. It wasn't easy, but when I stepped on the scale the next day and saw that I'd lost 2 pounds, I was ready to take on—and stick with—the challenge. I lost 20 pounds in the first 5 weeks! I realized that every day is a choice, and I wanted to make the right one, so each morning I weighed myself to see how my meals affected my weight loss goal.

Then tournament season started again. I was nervous because it was the first time I would be following a healthy diet on the road. But I stuck to my meal plan. I started to introduce unprocessed starches like brown rice back into my diet for extra energy during long games. When I returned home, I got on the scale, and, to my surprise, I'd managed to lose a few more pounds!

Around this time I also started sharing my weight loss adventures on Twitter. I would tweet my progress, pictures, and frustrations about the journey, and people would share their tips and encouraging words. I developed such a supportive community of followers that it helped me stick to my plan—I was doing it for them as well.

Tweet Off the PoundsEngaging with people on Twitter can help you drop pounds. Researchers at the University of South Carolina found that participants who posted daily updates about their weight loss efforts on Twitter and regularly listened to a health podcast lost more weight. In fact, every 10 tweets corresponded to a 0.5% weight loss.

Happier and Fitter for LifeI've gone from a size 12 to a size 4, but my body isn't the only thing that has changed. While my weight loss initially caused my game to suffer a bit—I had to get used to swinging with a smaller, more flexible physique—I now have more stamina for longer, harder practices, even in Florida's humid weather. I'm also a better mom now that I have more energy to play with my son.

My 2012 resolution turned into a life resolution. This year my goal is to achieve balance, so I'm incorporating meditation into my days. I'm a happier, more energetic version of myself, and I plan on staying that way!